An old Irish legend that must have come to Texas with some of its
earliest settlers has grown into a profitable business for Lone Star
farmers – cultivating a variety of squash that sells by the ton every
fall.

We’re talking about pumpkins, of course. Or, to the Texas tongue,
punkins.

It’s not too difficult to dig up the tale that transformed pumpkins
into edible holiday icons, but there is an interesting puzzle of geographic
nomenclature to consider: The Punkin Center Phenomenon.

If anyone ever tells you that they’re from Punkin Center, better ask
them to be more specific. Unique as that place name might seem, Texas
has four different communities called Punkin Center.

Listed alphabetically,
there’s Punkin Center in Dawson County, Punkin Center in Eastland
County, Punkin Center in Hardeman County and Punkin Center in Parker
County. Oh, and in Wichita County, the community of Haynesville is
locally known as Punkin Center even though Haynesville is the official
name.

Elsewhere across the United States, four other communities call themselves
Punkin Center. But unlike Texas, which has to be bigger about everything,
each of the non-Texas Punkin Centers is in a different state – Arizona,
Kansas, Louisiana and Missouri.

Strange as the name Punkin Center may seem, according to the Web site
www.placesnamed.com, Punkin Center is the 4,438th most popular town
name in the U.S. It also shows up on a Web site devoted to America’s
funniest town names, but that site lists Punkin Center, KS, not the
Texas PCs.

Texas singer David Allen Coe sure likes the name. In 1976, he recorded
a song called “The Punkin Center Barn Dance.”

But here’s the weird thing about Punkin Centers in Texas. None of
them are in counties particularly known for their bounteous pumpkin
crops.

Floyd
County, which has an annual Punkin Festival but no community named
Punkin Center, is the top pumpkin-producing county in Texas. Other
prolific producers of pumpkins are Bailey, Hale, Lamb and Lubbock
counties.

Texas A&M University says Texas ranks in the Top 10 of pumpkin-producing
states (but don’t forget we’re No. 1 in terms of number of Punkin
Centers). The estimated value of Texas’ annual pumpkin harvest is
$4.6 million, most of the pumpkins going for ornamental (read: Halloween)
purposes.